Dimitrios Koutoufides
Dimitrios Aléxandrou Koutoufides (Greek: Δημήτριος Αλεξάνδρου Κουτουφίδης; June 30, 1919 - April 19, 2006) was a Hellenic Army soldier and Greek Royalist officer who served in the Greco-Italian War, World War II, the Greek Civil War, and the Korean War. Early life and family Koutoufides was born on June 30, 1919 in Trikala in Thessaly. He came from a prominent Thessalian family, his father, Aléxandros Ioánnou, was an Army officer of an aristocratic background. The family enjoyed a comfortable upper-class lifestyle. In 1937, after graduating Lyceum, Dimitrios Koutoufides applied to and was accepted into the Hellenic Army Academy. He studied there for two years, but in 1939, due to growing concerns over the northern border, was commissioned a year early. Military service Greco-Italian War In April 1939, Fascist Italy invaded Albania. In response, the Kingdom of Greece called up the reserves and mobilized the Hellenic Army on the Albanian border. Koutoufides was appointed a Second Lieutenant in an infantry platoon of the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, a part of the 1st Infantry Division. The 1st Division was the main force guarding the Pindus sector of the border. At the front, the Greeks began hastily fortifying their positions. On October 28, 1940, Italy invaded Greece. Lieutenant Koutoufides and his men were attacked by a large Italian force, and they quickly retreated. Linking up with the rest of the division, they fought back multiple Italian advances at the Battle of Pindus throughout the first part of November. Combined with the victory in the Epirus region, the Italian offensive was brought to a complete halt and the Greeks launched a counteroffensive. The 1st Division invaded Albania with other Greek forces later in the month, capturing Ersekë and Leskovik and advancing further, taking Frashër and reaching the area of Klisura in December. In January 1941, Lieutenant Koutoufides's men led the attack into the enemy positions, driving the Italians out of the region and holding it against a counterattack in the Capture of Klisura Pass. Pressing the attack, the division fought its way north into the Trebeshinë mountain range. Koutoufides's unit captured Hill 1923 and defeated a series of counterattacks throughout February in the Battle of Trebeshina. By this point, the lines had stabilized, and there was a brief quiet period at the front. This ended in March, when the Italians launched their major offensive, Operation Primavera. At the Battle of Hill 731, the 1st Division held out against attack after attack, defeating the Italians in a battle that lasted almost an entire month. With the Italian offensive brought to a halt, Lieutenant Koutoufides was transferred out of his unit, into what was supposed to be a quiet sector. World War II At the beginning of April, Koutoufides was sent to Macedonia, where he joined the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division in command of an infantry platoon. The 7th Division held the Metaxas Line, a series of defenses in eastern Macedonia. The line was poorly held, as most of the Greek Army was still in Albania. Meanwhile, the failure of the Italians brought Nazi Germany into the war against Greece, and on April 6, 1941, they began Operation Marita, invading Greece and Yugoslavia on the same day. The Battle of Greece began for Lieutenant Koutofides with a significant German attack aimed at Thessaloniki, starting the Battle of the Metaxas Line. Their point of defense was a fort guarding the Rupel Pass, which they held against the German onslought for days. When the Germans captured Thessaloniki, the garrison surrendered. However, Koutoufides and several other soldiers managed to escape, and he fled west. They fought many running battles against far superior German forces, and their intention was to reach Athens to help bolster its defense. Lieutenant Koutoufides refused to surrender, even after large parts of the Greek Army had done so. For the rest of April, the Greek soldiers resisted the Germans through guerrilla warfare. Leter, upon hearing that King George II and his royal family had escaped to the island of Crete, Koutoufides and his men went to join them. They secretly made their way to the island and arrived there at the beginning of May. On Crete, the Koutoufides's men found themselves integrated into a British Commonwealth formation, including many other Greek soldiers who had escaped the fighting on the mainland. They joined the 1st Greek Regiment, a part of the 5th New Zealand Brigade, 2nd New Zealand Division. On May 20, 1941, the Germans launched a massive airborne assault on the island, beginning the Battle of Crete. The Greek soldiers fought in the vicinity of Chania, forcing back several attacks by the Germans and inflicting heavy casualties. For a week, they fought in the Kastelli area against more German advances, until ammunition ran dry and the position was untenable. An evacuation of all Allied forces in Crete was ordered, and the 5th Brigade began to retreat. The Allied soldiers fought a series of rearguards actions against the Germans at Souda and Stylos, and by the end of the month they had reached Sfakia on the south coast, where they would be rescued. Lieutenant Koutoufides and his men fought off the German advances against an ever-shrinking perimeter. In June, they boarded a British ship, joining the last soldiers to be evacuated off the island. In June 1941, Koutoufides arrived in Egypt, where he was directly appointed by the newly-arrived Greek government-in-exile (then under British protection) into the Royal Hellenic Army in the Middle East, part of the Free Greek Forces. He was placed in the 1st Greek Infantry Battalion, 1st Greek Infantry Brigade, and took command of an infantry platoon. The Greeks, however, would not be dispatched to the front in North Africa for a long time. Instead, they trained in Palestine for a year, equipped and organized at British expense. In May 1942, the 1st Brigade was sent to Syria, and then back into Egypt, where in August it was placed under the command of the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division. The brigade was posted to the Alamein line in September, and in October 1942 fought at the Second Battle of El Alamein. In Operation Lightfoot, the Greeks attacked, facing Italian and German forces in the area. The assault was only nominally successful, and cost the brigade many casualties. At the end of the operation, the Greeks were returned to guard duty on the Nile Delta in November. In January 1943, the 1st Brigade was moved back to Syria, where it regrouped with Greek forces. The other Free Greek brigade in the Middle East was made up of Communists and EAM (National Liberation Front, the left-wing partisan army fighting the axis occupation) supporters. Koutoufides and the 1st Brigade were royalists loyal to the government-in-exile, and thus "politically reliable". For another year, the brigade would shift between guard duty in Egypt and Libya. However, in April 1944, the peace would end. The pro-EAM soldiers in both units mutinied over the EAM/royalist question. Lieutenant Koutoufides attempted to talk the mutineers down from any drastic action, but it was too late and British forces put down the rebellion with brutal efficiency. Koutoufides was arrested, and spent a month imprisoned until he was released after other Greek officers testified on his behalf. The old Greek formations in the Middle East were disbanded, and a new unit was established, one which would be loyal to the king. In July 1944 the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade was created, and only the most competent and loyal soldiers were allowed to join. Koutoufides was promoted to Captain and given command of an infantry company in the 1st Greek Battalion. They departed Egypt in August and sailed to the front in Italy, just in time for the Allied assault to break the Gothic Line. Operation Olive began later in the month and the 3rd Brigade jumped off and advanced toward the Pesaro on the Adriatic Coast. The campaign continued throughout the month, with the Allies pushing along the coastal plain. In the mountainous region ahead, the German defenses stiffened, and the 3rd Brigade was sent in. The Battle of Rimini began in September, as Captain Koutoufides and his men beat back a German attack to the south of the town before attacking Rimini airfield. The fighting was fierce and continued for the rest of the month until the brigade captured the city itself. Not long after the breaking of the Gothic line, the brigade departed Italy for Greece, where the German occupying forces were quickly evacuating the country. In October 1944, as a part of Operation Manna, Koutoufides and the rest of the Greek forces and their British allies marched triumphantly into liberated Athens. However, even with the Germans gone, the fighting would continue. Greek Civil War With the arrival of Allied troops in the country, tensions between the government and the Communist EAM grew sharply. In December 1944, the government ordered the the disbanding of ELAS, the Greek People's Liberation Army, and a demonstration against this movement was fired upon by the far-right Organization X. This outbreak of violence began the Dekemvriana, or the December events, a full-scale battle in the streets of Athens between a coalition of government forces, right-wing paramilitaries, and the British Army, against the leftist EAM-ELAS. Captain Koutoufides and the 3rd Brigade were caught up in the fighting against EAM, and were soon pushed out of Athens and forced from the city suburbs. In January 1945, the royalists made a counterattack, and soon regained control of the city, and the Communists evacuated, taking many hostages. In February, a treaty between the two sides brought peace, and elections were to be held to decide the future of Greece's government. The elections returned the monarchy to power, but the EAM-ELAS faction refused to accept the result. In March 1946, a series of attacks by Communist terror groups prompted immediate action from the Hellenic Army. The Communists were now organized into the DSE, or Democratic Army of Greece, and stepped up their attacks as a military formation. Captain Koutoufides, whose unit had been disbanded, was assigned to the 582nd Infantry Battalion of the 75th Brigade. Later in the year, they departed for northern Epirus, in order to take part in anti-guerrilla operations and counter the DSE threat. Captain Koutoufides and his men fought the DSE forces in both conventional and unconventional warfare, the scale of which gradually increased. Fighting the guerrillas proved frustrating, far more so than traditional enemies like the Germans and Italians. The DSE would take a village and evacuate it before the National Army could effectively counterattack. This type of fighting continued throughout 1946 and 1947, with the Communists controlling thousands of towns and villages in mainland Greece. In December 1947, the DSE decided to try to capture a major city. Koutoufides and the 75th Brigade fought alongside ordinary citizens in the Battle of Konitsa, breaking the Communist attack and driving away the DSE forces in fighting that lasted until January 1948. Despite this defeat, the DSE was still at the height of its power. They controlled much of northern Greece, and by 1948 were even in striking distance of Athens itself. Decisive action was needed, and in the summer of 1948 the government forces launched Operation Koronis, an encirclement plan to trap the Communists in the Grammos mountains. Koutoufides and his men fought hard to capture and hold Kleftis hill against the DSE in a battle that lasted from June to August. The National Army won in the end, but the maneuver failed to capture the greater part of the Communist force. A follow-up operation began soon after, and the National troops again attacked DSE-held areas in the mountains of northern Epirus. Fierce fighting between the two sides saw Koutoufides and his men force the DSE off several mountains in September, until a counterattack broke the back of the government army and in turn forced them from their recently-taken positions. For the rest of 1948 the DSE operated at will throughout the country, having won a major victory. In 1949, the tide would turn. American aid to the anti-Communist Greeks helped them restructure the army and consider a change of tactics, just as Yugoslav aid to the DSE had begun to dry up. The National Army began to shift the balance of power in the Peloponnese theater, and a series of attacks launched by the Communists in Epirus failed. By August 1949, it was time to start the final offensive which would break the DSE in northern Epirus. Captain Koutoufides was to take part in Operation Pyrsos, an attack on the Grammos mountains. His men took Mount Vitsi and later in the month retook the Grammos area. With this decisive attack, the DSE was trapped and the territory under their control was rapidly shrinking. On October 16, 1949, the DSE agreed to a ceasefire with government forces, bringing the civil war to a successful conclusion. Korean War After the victory over the Communist faction in the civil war, Koutoufides remained in the army. In 1950, he was alerted to the possibility of the Greek government sending a brigade in support of the United Nations forces fighting in Korea. With the rapid UN victories in September, however, this formation was downgraded to a battalion. Koutoufides volunteered for service, was promoted to major, and given a position in the newly-formed Greek "Sparta" Battalion. In November 1950, the battalion departed Greece and arrived in Korea the next month, posted as a part of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the US 1st Cavalry Division. After being pushed back by a massive Chinese offensive the previous months, the UN was ready to make a counterattack. In January 1951, the Greek Battalion was given its first combat assignment. As a part of the Second Battle of Wonju, the Greek soldiers swept a mountain range just south of the border as a containment operation to defeat a force of North Korean guerrillas. Once this mission was complete, they fought off several Communist Chinese attacks in the Inchon area, defeating numerically superior enemy forces and in doing so saving a large part of the United Nations force in Operation Thunderbolt. Major Koutoufides distinguished himself in combat during the fight for Hill 381. The battalion attacked again in March throughout April as a part of Operation Ripper, crossing the Hongcheon River, driving the Chinese back, and capturing Hill 325. The Greek forces advanced the line along with other UN troops, taking Hill 313 as a part of Operation Commando and defending it against an enemy counterattack. This battle cost the battalion many casualties, and the force, including Koutoufides, would be placed in reserve for some time. In 1952, the Greek Battalion was attached to the 15th Infantry Regiment of the US 3rd Infantry Division, and took part in a series of patrols and were placed on guard duty for most of the year. Major Koutoufides and the men did not experience much enemy action during this period as the front had stabilized between the UN and Communist forces and the stalemate had set in. However, in September, the Chinese launched a massive offensive on the UN line. The battalion was engaged by a superior Chinese force around Daeno-ri and held their position for several days against all odds. After this hard-fought victory, the battalion was moved into division reserve again. For the rest of the year, Koutoufides's unit did not see any major battles, and continued patrolling their sector of the seemingly static front line. For the early part of 1953, the Greek Battalion was deployed several times but fought only light skirmishes against Chinese forces. This changed in June, when the battalion was moved to Hill 420, called Outpost Harry ("Haros" by the Greeks). US forces had held the hill previously, and the Greek Battalion was called up to defend it. For two days, Major Koutoufides and his men held the hill against vastly superior Chinese forces and stopped the Communist attacks cold. In July at Bukjeongryeong, the Greeks defeated more Chinese attacks, fighting almost up until the armistice itself. On July 27, 1953, at Panmunjom, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed by all parties, and all fighting ceased. Postwar, the Istanbul Pogrom, and the end of service Even though active combat on the Korean peninsula had ended, UN forces still garrisoned the Military Demarcation Line to prevent further Communist actions. The Greek Battalion, including Major Koutoufides, remained in Korea on the 38th Parallel throughout 1954 and 1955. However, in September 1955, Turkish mobs attacked and murdered ethnic Greeks in the Istanbul Pogrom. This prompted immediate action from Greece, and the Greek Battalion was returned home for a possible rapid deployment shoud the situation deteriorate further. However, the problem was resolved peacefully and no action was necessary. On December 5, 1958, Major Dimitrios Koutoufides retired from the Hellenic Army after nineteen years of exemplary service. Personal life In 1957, Dimitrios Koutoufides married Phoebe Marinakou. They had three children, Aikaterine, Andreas, and Ioannis. They moved to Athens, where they lived in Kaisariani for the rest of their lives. In 1967, during the military coup, Koutoufides was arrested by the military junta as a possible enemy of the new regime. He denounced the putschists and the new government, but was nevertheless released in 1969 through connections with other army officers who had taken part of the coup. He welcomed the creation of the Third Hellenic Republic in 1974. The same year, during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Koutoufides offered his services to the government. He was turned down. On April 19, 2006, Dimitrios Aléxandrou Koutoufides passed away of old age. Koutoufides was a very close friend of New Zealand soldier Henry Carver, the two having fought together at the battles of Crete, El Alamein, and Rimini during the second world war. They remained in contact after the war, with Koutoufides visiting Carver in Wellington in 1981 and Carver visiting Koutoufides in Athens in 1994. An aging Carver travelled back to Greece for his friend's funeral in 2006. Views Koutoufides was a monarchist and supported the royal family throughout the World War II and Civil War periods. In 1967, he denounced the military coup as treason and refused to pledge loyalty to the newly-established government. Koutoufides was also a practicing Greek Orthodox Christian. Equipment During the Greco-Italian War and the Battle of Greece, Koutoufides used the standard Mannlicher-Schönauer M1903/14/27 bolt-action rifle. He also carried an FN M1910/22 automatic pistol. In Egypt, he was reequipped with a British Lee Enfield No.1 Mk.III* bolt-action rifle, a Webley Mk.VI revolver, and the Mills No. 36M Mk.I fragmentation grenade. He used these weapons during the fighting in Egypt, Italy, and the civil war. During the Korean War, he used an American M1 Garand rifle and carried the Mk II fragmentation grenade.Category:Soldiers in the Greco-Italian War Category:Soldiers in World War II Category:Soldiers in the Greek Civil War Category:Soldiers in the Korean War Category:Greek soldiers